A student has had a metal spoon removed from her stomach by doctors after she accidentally SWALLOWED it when she was eating ice cream.

Zhang Weiwei, who is 22, was on her way back from a meal with friends when the incident happened.

The varsity student from Wuhan University in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, had bought an ice cream and was chatting and walking back to her dorm room when another friend saw her and jumped on her back to greet her.

The girl had such a fright that she swallowed the entire 14cm metal spoon.

She said: "I guess I opened my mouth to scream and that allowed the spoon with a dollop of ice cream on the end which I had in my mouth to go down my throat."

Taking time: The student did not see a doctor immediately, as she said she only felt "bloated" after swallowing the spoon (Image: EuroPics)

The student did not see a doctor immediately, as she said she only felt "bloated" after swallowing the spoon, suffering no obvious pain or discomfort.

However, after doing a quick search on the internet, she reportedly realised the dire consequences she could suffer if the spoon was left inside her stomach for too long.

She went to a hospital the very next day and doctors managed to fish out the metal spoon with a minimally invasive surgery that involved pulling the spoon back up her throat and out of her mouth in an operation that lasted just 10 minutes.